Christian said he’s curious how burners will react to Elevation‘s solitary throne, which seats one and sits near the top of the mammoth structure, when the piece is deployed on the playa.

"Will a line form? Will there be cooperation?" asked Christian, who wears a smiley-face mask when he’s welding (pictured). "Or will someone get up there and say, ‘Fuck you — I don’t want to get down.’"

Funded in part by festival organizers, Elevation is one of the many giant art installations that help turn Burning Man into a larger-than-life fantasy land each year. Projects like HomourobosSteampunk Tree House and the awaited burners in 2007.

Composed nearly entirely of tube steel, all of which was painstakingly cut to length and welded together, Elevation soared through a skylight in the roof of the East Bay warehouse where Christian’s crew assembled it prior to this year’s burn. On the playa, the finished piece will include elements of fire and lighting, and should offer panoramic views.

It’s not Christian’s first time making sponsored art for Burning Man.
He was first approached to build a piece for the desert art festival in
1997.

"I told them I didn’t do festivals, but the organization was going to pay me to do something I enjoyed doing," said Christian. "And it’s not Coca-cola or Mobil Oil. There are far worse employers."

Elevation‘s base rests, inverted, in Christian’s large workspace in the East Bay earlier this month before final welds. The structure will weigh close to 5,000 pounds when completed.

Christian grinds on Elevation‘s main structure. The project has been about 14 weeks in the making; planning, designing and engineering took nearly half that time.

The structure of the piece has evolved from Christian’s original proposal, but the artist said he’s happy with the changes.

"It always turns out however it turns out," he said. "You leave some things to chance as you go along and there’s always got to be some possibility for failure and experimentation because otherwise you’re just doing a job."

Laura Ellison gazes up at the main structure of Elevation. The final height of the structure on the playa will be a staggering 65 feet, with the throne sitting near the top at 54 feet in the air.

"The theme this year is about the American Dream and this is about being American," said Christian. "It’s sort of like — the ridiculousness of building a five-story structure, like knowing that driving a car kills the environment and still doing it. It’s a ridiculous thing to climb up five stories tall and sit in a chair."

"And I don’t really like heights," he said.

Christian, pictured working on Elevation, started off as a visual artist doing gallery works but expanded into large-scale public art projects when he became involved in Burning Man in 1997.

"People say, ‘Your work is very Burning Man,’" said Christian. "I say, ‘Burning Man is very my work.’"

Over the years, he’s witnessed the growth of the festival into an annual event that draws thousands of people into the Nevada desert.

"It’s interesting to see how it’s changed and evolved from being more primal — sticks and rocks and fire — to streets and street signs, restrictions and law enforcement," said Christian. "There’s a lot of money now and it’s a whole different ballgame. It’s gone from a small gathering to a city, and now people come from all over the world."